In known thermo-forming machines, troughs are formed in a lower film web using a forming station. The troughs are filled with products to be packaged in an inserting track. In a sealing station, the filled troughs are sealed with an upper film. In this process, the packages that are being formed can be evacuated or filled with protection gas in order to increase the durability of the packaged products. At a cutting station, the filled and sealed troughs provided in the lower film track are separated from one another in order to obtain individual packages or connected groups of packages. During the packaging process, the lower film web is conveyed using a transport device along a transport direction. The forming station, the inserting track, the sealing station and the cutting station are purposefully arranged along the transport direction in the mentioned order. The forming station, the sealing station and the cutting station can be disposed on a machine rack of the thermo-forming packaging machine. It is known to guide the products to be packaged via one or multiple feeding belts towards the thermo-forming packaging machine in the area of the inserting track where the products are put into the troughs of the lower film web, for example using a picket or manually. As the distance between the feeding belt and the troughs to be filled has to be overcome at each transfer of products from the feeding belt into the troughs, the clocking or cycle time depends among other things on this distance. The minimum distance that can be achieved between the feeding belt and the lower film web with the troughs that are formed in said lower film web is limited among other things by the space requirement of the machine rack and the side claddings on both sides of the thermo-forming packaging machine.
A thermo-forming packaging machine according to a specialized structural form is known from EP 2 778 079 A1. This machine comprises a side profile on whose inner side a chain guide for a film clamping chain for transporting the lower film web is installed. The side profile that is disposed along the inserting track is at that same time also a part of the product feeding device for conveying the products to be packaged towards the inserting track. According to this specialized structural form, the product feeding device is consequently formed in an integral way with the side profile of the thermo-forming packaging machine in order to reduce the distance between the fed products and the troughs to be filled and hence to shorten the ways for putting the products into the troughs. Integrating the product feeding device into the side profile of the thermo-forming packaging machine comes with the disadvantage that the thermo-forming packaging machine cannot simply be combined with different product feeding systems depending on the conditions of use. In addition, a packaging machine specialized this way can only be adapted with difficulty to spatial conditions of the place of use.
A different way of feeding products to be packaged to an inserting track of a thermo-forming packaging machine is known from DE 20 2016 000 757 U1. The thermo-forming packaging machine disclosed therein comprises clamping chains that are held in chain guides for the lower film to be held on both sides and transported along the transport direction. The chain guides are aligned horizontally along the forming station and along the sealing station. Along an inserting track that is located between the forming station and the sealing station, the chain guides have an ascending orientation. Along the inserting track, the chain guides are preferably inclined at an angle of 10° to 30° to the horizontal line. In the obliquely extending inserting track, products to be packaged are put directly into the troughs of the lower film via a product inserting belt that extends above the film transport plane in parallel to the transport direction and that is formed as a retraction belt. As the product inserting belt has to extend above the film transport plane for this purpose, attention has to be paid during construction of the thermo-forming packaging machine that movable upper parts of the forming station do not come into conflict with the product inserting belt during operation. The direct insertion of products into troughs that are guided along an ascending area using a retraction belt can be inappropriate for specific products and trough forms and requires accurate coordination of the operation of the individual components of the packaging machine.
Thermo-forming packaging machines that have complete cutting stations in order to separate multiple packages from a film composite are known from DE 30 20 633 A1 and DE 31 18 946 A1. The cut packages remain on support elements and are transported out of the complete cutting station onto a transport belt, which transports the packages out of the thermo-forming packaging machine and/or further, using drawing forward the remaining film grid. This comes with the disadvantage that the packages are fed uncontrollably to a subsequent working process on the transport belt. In addition and due to the transport belt that follows the complete cutting station, the overall length of the arrangement can become relatively large so that the arrangement cannot be used in narrow spaces.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a thermo-forming packaging machine that enables feeding of products to be packaged and/or removal of filled and sealed packages with a high work cycle and a high accuracy.